Rockies Release Manny Corpas

The Rockies released reliever Manny Corpas, reports Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. Corpas, 27, had Tommy John surgery in September. He'd also undergone surgery to remove bone chips in that elbow in July of '09. $3.75MM remains on his contract, which he signed in February of '08.

This year Corpas posted a 4.62 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9 and 42.5% groundball rate, picking up ten saves. The Rockies locked him up after his best season, several years before he would have been arbitration eligible. It was just unnecessary.

There is, but the 2 sides may have reached an agreement (i.e the Rox still cover his medical expenses related to the injury). The contract is guaranteed anyway, so he still gets his money. I’m honestly not sure what the Rox gain by releasing him now.

Disagree that it was unnecessary. It was the kind of gamble teams like the Rockies have to make. Corpas looked like he could be a standout closer for years to come at that point, so they give him a mini Longoria/Tulowitzki/Sizemore contract hoping to save money in the long run. The gamble didn’t pay off but it was worth it at the time. I think it was for something like $9 MM over 4 years or something.

Extending relievers is completely different than extending closers. You need to have someone at the end of games consistently there, not just year to year. Manny was good in ’07 so they extended him with the idea of him being their closer for the 3 years to come and now they are doing the same with Street. Both have been banged up over the course of their individual contracts but when Street is healthy is very dominate at the end of ball games.

It’s a two edged sword, giving players who had one good year an extension, especially pitchers. This time it didn’t work out, but he could have been great, too. When he was healthy, he was pretty good.